September 11 + Saints Hyacinth and Protus

Born in the third century, Hyacinth and Protus were the companions of Saint Eugenia of Rome. Eugenia came from a wealthy family and fled from her father’s control to pursue a life devoted to God. Her father was a high ranking official in Alexandria and she escaped into the desert to live with ascetics. Hyacinth and Protus accompanied her and the three were baptized together by Helenus, the Bishop of Heliopolis. The two men devoted themselves to living out the practices of early monasticism in the Egyptian desert and committed much of their time to studying Sacred Scripture.

Hyacinth and Protus later accompanied Eugenia to Rome to spread the faith and were arrested in the mid-third century in the course of the Valerian persecutions of Christians, began by Emperor Valerian and continued by his son, Emperor Gallienus. They were scourged but refused to deny their faith so they were beheaded.

The tomb of Hyacinth was discovered in 1845, undisturbed, with an inscription that indicated that the martyr was buried on September 11. Inside the tomb were charred bones and traces of expensive material. Relics of Hyacinth rest in the reliquary chapel in the Basilica.

A tomb nearby bore an inscription that indicated that it held the martyr Protus, but the tomb was empty. His relics were said to have been removed in the ninth century, and moved several times since then.